"We are in a region where there is lots of exciting exports happening but there is a complete absence of good quality data out there, in particular about exporters and tourism operators so we expect that the data from this survey is really going to assist us creating solutions in the future."

The data collection exercise is being undertaken by the Sydney-based market research firm ACAResearch, which has formulated questions on pacificexportsurvey.com, targetted towards attaining more information about exporters in the region.

"We need to get a snapshot about who are the Pacific Island exporters so in terms of size of business, where they reside, what type of products they sell, where they are currently exporting," said Caleb Jarvis, of Pacific Islands Trade and invest.

"There is wide difference in terms of ...you know there is big mining and exploration companies exporting huge volumes mining and energy type commodities out from the region and at the other end of the spectrum we've got small vanilla farmers who are exporting directly to markets in Europe and Japan and Australia."

Mr Jarvis says there are significant challenges in getting enough exporters to complete the survey.

He says the efforts would require the assistance of regional agencies such as business chambers, councils, national tourism offices, government departments and investment promotion authorities.